


The Tainted

by Danishartist



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Anal Sex, Bottom Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, Explicit Sexual Content, First Time, M/M, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Top Eren Yeager, Work In Progress, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:21:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23570761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danishartist/pseuds/Danishartist
Summary: Levi lives a simple life in the northern woods until the day where he comes across a strange boy being chased through the forest by even stranger creatures. As Levi interferes, he is attacked by the creatures, and he is suddenly caught up in the affairs of the stranger. Eren is his name, a noble from the East, with beautiful eyes and an ugly past.The odd pair begins their journey. Unbeknownst to them, their fates have been intertwined even from before the very beginning.
Relationships: Levi/Eren Yeager
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	1. Running Through the Forest

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Since I'm stuck in this quarantine, I thought it would be fitting to spend my time productively, so I started working on a new story.  
> I hope you'll enjoy! And please share your thoughts in the comments when you're done reading - I would love to hear your thoughts on it, and whether or not I should continue writing it. :)
> 
> I hope you all stay safe and healthy during this strange period in our lives!

The forest was like a second home.

Though today was not like any other day. As I braced the woodland, I noticed the eerie serenity that hung in the air. As I had spent most of my years here, I knew the place like the back of my hand, which was the reason why I knew when something was off.

On a normal day, the birds soared through the forest, searching for food for their little ones, while the small mammals ran through the leaves and sticks that covered the ground. You’d be able to hear the sound of the small creek in the distance, and the sound of leaves rustling softly in the wind.

It was music to my ears, but today there was no music to be heard.

I gently touched the trees for support as I made my way further from the valley. As I climbed the steeper part of the hillside, and the ground started to flatten, my tempo quickened. I moved with ease now, glad to stretch my muscles and use my body to its full extent. I felt the wind’s attempt to grab hold of my hair, the warmth spreading through my limbs as my muscles got used to the movements, the sticks of the ground scratching at my ankles.

I enjoyed every moment.

It was no surprise that I was sweaty when I arrived at my destination. I stood on my toes, not worrying about removing the sweat from my forehead, and grabbed the hazel stick that I had attached to the tree. I grabbed the trap chest from the end of the stick and opened the lid just a centimeter or two to see the content. I smirked slightly before my hand slid into the container, grabbing the neck of the still-alive dormouse inside. I bowed my head in a silent prayer for a short moment, before snapping its neck quickly and efficiently for a painless death, and then continued to stuff the animal into the small bag that was latched onto the side of my belt. I then proceeded to place a small piece of fruit into the chest before hanging up the hazel stick yet again. I continued this chore all of the other places where I had put my traps, though it only resulted in four more animals out of the ten traps I had put up. Slightly disappointed, I wandered towards the creek, following the trail where I had walked so many times before.

Though I knew where to walk to arrive at my destination, I still listened to the sound of the bubbling water flowing over the smooth stones. And this is when I noticed.

That was the only sound I could hear.

I frowned as I stopped moving, looking up at the green leaf sky. There was no wind, no animals, no birds. I froze in place, as my mind tried to comprehend the situation. What could possibly be happening in the forest that would disturb the peace like this?

I held my breath as I listened carefully, trying to catch every sound that my ears could pick up. To the w- no the north, there were footsteps moving through the dry leaves, and they were quick ones. I squinted my eyes as I looked in the direction of the sound.

But that wasn’t the only footsteps I could hear, though these crushing, trampling sounds weren’t from feet, they were from some four-legged animal. But how many? Six or perhaps even seven?

What foolish human had wandered into this forest so unprepared? What could they have done to release the rage of the forest animals? My curiosity got the best of me, and before I knew it I had started to move again, running smoothly through the woodland.

My journey ended abruptly as I grabbed hold of a nearby tree mere seconds before I would have fallen down a steep hillside. I hissed lowly as I felt the hard bark scratch the underside of my arm, but that did not deserve my attention at the moment, as the scene below me was still unfolding.

A young man was standing in the middle of a clearing, breathing heavily as he took a defensive stand.

“Please! I do not wish to harm you!”

His voice echoed through the trees as he held up his hands to surrender.

Sure, because the knife he’s still holding is definitely proving that, I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes. And then I focused on the creatures he was addressing.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Hound-looking creatures that I had never seen before, thrice as large as those we had in the village back home, stood a few meters from the man, slowly surrounding him in a circle. They looked terrifying, with pure rage shining through their red eyes and a dark glow steaming from their fur as if they were on fire. He was utterly defenseless against these dark beasts that could overpower him in seconds, yet he was still standing like he had the upper hand.

Was it all for show? He was either a very brave or very stupid young man.

I inspected him more closely now, and to my surprise, he was wearing clothes I had never seen before. The shirt he was wearing was torn several places, but it was still a fabric that was very pleasing to the eye, as the colors changed and danced in the sunlight. The fabric was a deep green color, matching the golden colors of his jewelry.

Wait, what? I had never actually seen it with my own eyes before now, only on drawings or heard descriptions of it, yet I instinctively knew what it was. The gold shone bright, teasing my eyes as the sunlight became reflected in it when the boy moved. He was wearing two rings on his left hand, and some kind of large, thick ring on his upper arm. The last item he had on, was a golden sheath, with a jewel-covered sword handle at the end of it. There were jewels glistening in all of them, but I was too far away to be able to see any more detail than that.

The young man’s hair was like the color of chestnut, and his skin looked much warmer and darker than mine. He certainly didn’t look like he belonged here, so far up north.

But what was he doing here? And why was he holding a mere knife, when a perfectly good sword was right at his disposal?

The beasts growled and snarled loudly as they slowly decreased the distance between them and him, confident that they had already caught their prey, but still wary since he could still do some serious damage before they killed him off.

If he had been any other stupid peasant running around helplessly in the forest, I might not have intervened. But now I was actually considering it, which was much to my surprise. This stranger was strange indeed, and I could feel a deep curiosity inside me waking up, making my fingertips twitch. I wanted to know where he came from and what had brought him here – and most of all, I wanted to see the jewels up close, so it certainly would be a problem if the beasts swallowed him whole.

And I wasn’t really in the mood to track the beasts down afterward and wait for them to shit it out to then rummage through piles of stinking crap.

Yeah, risking my life to save this guy would definitely be less of a hassle for me.

Only seconds after I had made up my mind, something happened down below.

“I don’t have it! Look!” The stranger dropped the knife so that he could use both hands to rip open his shirt. He exposed his chest to the beasts with a pleading yet determined look in his eyes as he stared intensively at the biggest beast of them all. It snarled when the knife landed on the ground and then huffed loudly as it took in the sight of his smooth, warm skin.

I looked at the scene with confusion written all over my face. What was he doing? There was nothing to be seen on his chest. What was he talking about?

The large beast took a step towards the stranger, and I could clearly hear it sniffing him, just like a dog would. I held my breath in anticipation, wondering what would happen now. I had forgotten about my own wish to run down there and help him out, as I couldn’t comprehend what the hell I would actually walk into.

This was way out of my league.

“I am not the one you seek. Please leave this place at once.”

He spoke more softly this time, before slowly reaching out to greet the beasts face with his fingertips. The beast showed its teeth at him, still tense.

Oh god no, I thought. I had seen this happen too many times before. People always became too comfortable too fast around animals, just when they fall into a false sense of security.

The beast huffed again, before growling so loudly that I could have sworn I felt the earth move beneath me.

“No! Watch out!”

I wasn’t proud to admit it, but the sense of dread had found my voice before I had any control over it. And then everything happened so fast.

The beasts all went quiet, and the young man’s head snapped in my direction, his green eyes piercing right through mine. And then the beasts made this awful sound, almost like a howling screech, something that I had never heard from an animal before.

Luckily for me, I hovered above them at the top of the steep hillside, otherwise I would have been dead in a matter of seconds. I took off running as soon as the beasts did, my survival instincts kicking in immediately.

Every second mattered.

I jumped over stones and branches, running in the direction that had been last on my mind. The creek. I had never run so fast in my life, and if it wasn’t because I was running for my life, I would probably have enjoyed the sensation.

I knew every stone and every pebble in the creek, however, I didn’t know the pain of sprinting over them as I did my best to avoid actually running through the water. I also didn’t know that when running like I was over such smooth surfaces, I was bound to fall at some point, no matter how agile and sly I was.

My head was the first to hit the ground, though I didn’t pass out right away. I blinked many times, trying to beat my heavy eyelids as I still needed my sight to assess the situation.

My arm was broken.

I felt it even before I could see it. The pain swept through my body like fire on a dry field of grass. I made a grimace as I tried to push my upper body up with my other hand. I never had a chance to evade.

The large beasts were trampling right at me with insane speed, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the hard impact.

It never came. Instead, I felt something crawling all over my chest before the eerie feeling spread through my arms and then my whole body. It was like I was being covered in a thousand maggots, trying to eat away at my skin everywhere. I let out a hollowing scream, a sound that I didn’t even know I had the ability to make, before collapsing on the ground as the pain froze up my body.

I could hear the faint sound of a voice yelling something, but it was if my body had become too tired to use my senses clearly. Everything became dull and hazy before I could hardly keep my eyes open any longer.

The last thing I saw was a pair of emerald green eyes.


	2. A Knife to the Throat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all are doing well!
> 
> This chapter is a lot longer than they first, I hope you’ll like it! Remember to like it and leave a comment - I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!

When I woke up, the pain had left my body. I was still by the creek, as I could hear the sound of water close by. I groaned as I tried to move my weak limbs. Sleeping on the hard ground had already made my body sore.

“Please. Don’t move too much.”

My eyes fluttered open as soon as I heard the familiar voice to my left side.

How come I hadn’t sensed his presence before now?

I didn’t have time to think too hard about it. I pushed myself up on my elbows as I stared dumbfoundedly at the stranger that was sitting cross-legged beside me. He was calmly stirring something in a bowl, but with his eyes still focused on me. I flinched again, my right arm filling up with pain as I supported more weight onto it.

“I told you not to move.”

A smile crept upon his lips, as he reached out to touch my shoulder, giving me a gentle push down. I went down voluntarily, our eyes still locked tight.

“Who are you?” I asked, my voice hoarse and weak.

“I’m Eren,” He was still smiling. “And you must be the idiot who got eaten by a Bourd,”

“A Bourd?” I blinked, probably with a dumbfound expression on my face, not even acknowledging the fact that he had just insulted me.

“Those creatures you saw? They are Bourds. Empty spirits from East, looking for a container to fill and drain,”

What a cryptic line.

“A container?”

Eren reached out yet again, this time placing his whole hand on my chest. Somehow, this simple touch felt so soothing that I almost wanted to close my eyes again and fall asleep.

“People with emptiness inside. They fill the hole in your heart,”

My eyes grew large.

“Are you telling me that I have one of those beasts inside of me right now?”

“Well, technically I don’t know how many are inside of you… That depends on how many holes there are to fill.”

“So, my heart is tainted now? What will become of me?”

“That depends,”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“On what?”

He didn’t answer. He dipped two fingers in the bowl instead, covering his fingertips with a muddy substance.

“Open up your shirt,”

I frowned, slightly annoyed that he didn’t just answer my question, and even more annoyed at myself for doing what he asked of me. I unbuttoned my shirt all the way down and shivered slightly from the cold. The sun was almost gone, which made me realize that I had been out for several hours.

Eren started drawing the mud on my chest, creating strange symbols with his fingers. I could do nothing but look as he worked, and it was only when he finished that I had realized I had held my breath while he had touched me.

“I fixed your arm while you were out. It’s probably going to be sore for a few days, so you shouldn’t use it too much.”

I raised my arm to examine it. I could have sworn that it had felt broken when I fell, but it looked perfectly fine now.

“Are you… One of them?”

He snickered.

“What exactly are you referring to?”

I didn’t want to say it. I already felt stupid enough, something that I wasn’t used to at all. But as always, my curiosity got the best of me.

“An Essential?”

Eren fell quiet, his smile slowly disappearing. His eyes left mine as he looked out into the forest, and an eerie silence befell us.

“No,”

He abruptly stood up and went to the creek to wash the muddy substance out of the bowl, before packing it down into his bag. Though I had some trouble with it, I got up as well. It was pretty clear to me that he wasn’t in the mood to talk about that subject, so I switched to something lighter.

“My name is Levi, by the way. Thank you for patching me up,” He turned around to look at me, and the subtle smile was back on his lips. I continued. “You must be a long way from home. What brings you all the way up north?”

“Ha. Is it really so obvious that I’m not from around here?” He joked, avoiding yet another of my questions.

Since I was no longer disoriented and weak, I started to feel more like myself again. I gathered myself, placing my hands on the side of my hips.

“Not with all that shining shit on you,”

Eren looked down at himself, before looking at me, and it was as if he finally now realized the difference between us. He was wearing silky smooth, colorful fabric and beautiful jewelry, while my clothes were rundown, worn out, and in only dark, brownish and grey colors. I was wearing nothing fancy, maybe except for the necklace around my neck, which was only a string, with a piece of metal at the end, formed as a bird spreading its wings. My only priced possession.

“Oh, I didn’t even realize how much I stand out!”

I cringed at his comment. Was he stupid? The northern state was poor as shit, how could he have traveled here not knowing that? I stared at him as he was clearly having an inner argument with himself about his attire.

“Oh, I know! Can I borrow some of your clothes?” As soon as he saw my skeptical look, he added, “I will pay you handsomely for it, of course.”

Well shit, I couldn’t really say no to that. Not when I was barely getting by as it was.

“Fine. Come with me then,”

As I motioned for him to join me, he kept standing there, staring at me with a quizzical look on his face.

“Can’t we just switch clothes now?”

I stopped in my tracks, immediately disgusted by the thought.

“No chance.”

I kept walking, and this time I was not planning on stopping to see if he would follow. When I could hear the sound of boots behind me crushing the dry leaves under them, I quickened my pace. There was no reason to waste time after all.

We reached the outskirts of the forest, and it was first when I could see the outline of my humble cabin that I finally slowed down again. Eren had already caught up to me, and now that I had slowed my pace, he could finally reach my side.

“Your agility is impressive,” He said, with a slight huff under his breath. I was certainly impressed as well, as I would have thought he’d be completely out of breath after that trip. When I didn’t answer him, he continued.

“You live all the way out here, all by yourself?”

“Yes.” There was a moment of silence as we got nearer. He clearly sensed that I wasn’t much of a talker, yet he kept going.

“How old are you?”

“46,”

Eren snickered as he shot me a look, judging my body. I was not 46 years old even by a long shot, I just didn’t want to disclose too much personal information about myself. Though now that I thought about it, I would certainly like some information out of him.

“What are you doing here? Why do you need to borrow my clothes, and where are you from?”

“Oh, so I have to tell you all my secrets, but you can’t even tell me your age?”

I couldn’t help but smirk at his comment.

“How old do you think I am then?” I asked him jokingly. How come he was so interested in my age? Not that anything else about me was any more interesting than that, but still. Up here, age didn’t fucking matter. Eren looked at me, still thinking, as we entered the cabin.

“Hm. 28, maybe?”

I stood with my back to him as I grinned. I was actually 31, but it was nice to know that I looked younger than that.

“Good guess,” I sent him a nod, letting him believe that he was right. I then sent him a look, and he understood that it was now his turn.

I took off my bag and placed it on the table, before proceeding to the fireplace to get it started. My cabin was only about thirty square meters and contained only the most essential. A bed to sleep in, a table to eat at, a place to cook and a fireplace to keep warm. There was nothing impressive about this place, yet Eren was looking around like he had seen nothing like it before. As I got a small fire started, I stood up and went over to my dresser to pick up some clothes. I held up a shirt and finally got his attention back.

“Ah, sorry, where were we?” Eren blinked as if he had just been in a trance.

“You were about to tell me what the fuck you’re doing here,” I said. He reached out to take the shirt from my hand, but I retracted it quickly. “You’ll get this after I hear about it.”

Eren stared at me for a moment and then smiled. He then went over to my bed, sitting down as if he had lived here his entire life.

“I can’t tell you much. I’m from the East, from the Kingdom of Rose. I guess I am what you northerners would call a noble,” He smirked slightly as I watched him, leaning up against my dresser. I nodded at him to continue. “Well, the East has been infected with Bourds for god knows how long now. We figured out how to hold them at bay, but at that point, it was too late. Too many people had gotten attacked by them at that point, and… Well, we needed to figure out a way to help those people. I needed to find a way to help,”

“I don’t understand. I faced them in the forest, yet nothing happened to me?”

Eren looked over at me with a hint of sadness in his eyes. He sighed.

“Something did happen, but not what you think. Bourds are not normal creatures, they are something beyond what you could possibly understand… Bourds can’t be satisfied with meat and flesh and bones, like every other predator. They live off something inside of us. Something unseen, untouched. We don’t know what it is precisely, but what we know, from observing the people that had been attacked, is that they turned cold as if all emotions had left them. Their moral compasses had been skewed and they just… stopped caring. About anything. As if the Bourd had blackened their hearts. If you are attacked, you become a Tainted. That’s what we call people like you.”

I squinted my eyes as I stared at him, having a hard time believing what he was saying.

“So instead of trying to eat my flesh from the outside, they are instead eating me up inside?”

“I guess you could look at it that way.”

I didn’t freak out. I couldn’t even comprehend his words – but he was acting so calmly as if he had just told me what he had eaten for breakfast. What was I supposed to do with this explanation? He had said that there was no cure, so did he just expect me to accept my new reality?

“Eren,” I said with a serious tone, staring at him. “You have come here to find a cure, correct?”

“Yes,” He nodded. “I was given information that there is something to be found here up north. In the East, we have Tellers, people that can sense the future of certain people. I found one who told me mine. And apparently I’m supposed to find the cure here.”

I took a deep breath, before calmly walking over to him. Before he could react, I had grabbed him by his collar, throwing him down and pinning him against the bed, my fist pressing against his throat.

“If I hadn’t told you to change your clothes, you would have been on your way by now, and you would have never told me all of this. You would have fucking left me here with this demon shit inside of me? How dare you leave me to this kind of fate!” I hissed at him.

Eren didn’t even flinch, and before I had even finished the last sentence, a knife was at my throat. It was so sharp that just by touching my neck it had already drawn blood. We stared at each other in silence for what felt like forever before a smile crept onto Eren’s lips.

“You really should invite me on a date before we get ourselves into a situation like this,” He snickered. “Now hands off handsome before I slit your throat.”

I crunched my jaw together and huffed out of my clenched teeth, before slowly letting go of his collar. I didn’t make any unnecessary movements, as I didn’t want to risk the consequences.

“You’re not my type,” I growled at him, which made him laugh again.

“Oh? Well, that’s a wasted opportunity.”

He placed his free hand on my chest, gently pushing me away from him, though the knife was still at my throat. I couldn’t see, but I could feel of droplets of blood slid down my skin and stain my shirt.

“Are you good going to be a good boy and calm down or are we going to keep having the conversation like this?”

“I’ll behave.” I hissed, sitting awkwardly on the bed with my chin held high. He slowly removed the knife and lowered his arm, though he still looked tense as if he was ready to slice me open if I made any more moves. I kept still, staring at his changed exterior. I had clearly underestimated him.

“Just for your information, I was going to tell you. Otherwise, I would have just left you immediately after tending to your wounds which, by the way,” He glared at me. “I could have just left you in the forest without a care in the world, so give me some credit here.”

“Fine. So now what?”

“Well, that’s up to you.” He finally retracted the knife completely, placing it in a small sheath hidden at his belt. “I can tell you how to cope until I come back, or you can come with me.” He stated, matter-of-factly.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “If you leave now, how long will it take you to come back?”

“It could be weeks, months … Maybe even years. I really have no idea.”

“And how long before the symptoms start manifesting in me?”

“Well, based on what I’ve seen and heard, it could take a few days up to two weeks. And then it only goes downhill from there. But I’d suggest that you come with me, that way it would be easier for me to make sure that I’ve found the right cure, because I could test it on you right away.” A grin grew on his lips, and he was seemingly back in his original mood.

“Well, it sounds like I don’t really have a choice here…” I sighed, rubbing my right temple with two fingers, closing my eyes for a few seconds. “Fine. I’ll come with you,”

“That’s great!” He exclaimed. “Now, about that change of clothes?”

I swallowed my bitterness before walking over to grab the shirt and pants on the dresser and throwing them at him. He got up and started undressing right in front of me. He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a slightly muscular body, his upper arms, and stomach nicely defined for someone his age.

I couldn’t believe the situation I had gotten myself in. I had gotten up this morning believing that all I had to do today was my daily run to the woods, and now I found myself in the company of a mysterious noble from the East who had caused me to be attacked by a supernatural creature that was now inside of me, slowly eating away at … what? My personality? My soul?

If I had to say so myself, I was taking all of this pretty darn well. But then again, I had always been excellent at keeping a cool head. I was distracted from my thoughts as Eren continued to take off his clothes, and I barely just turned around before his pants hit the floor.

“Didn’t know you were the shy type,” I could hear Eren’s teasing voice from behind me. I bit my lip hard, focusing on a crack in the wall on the other side of the room.

“Just being respectful.” I cut him off quickly, not bothering to hide the annoyed tone in my voice.

Eren started humming as he changed the rest of his clothes, and when he was finished, he walked past me before turning around to face me.

“So how do I look?” He held out his arms as my eyes took in the sight. He looked more discrete than before, but a change of clothes couldn’t hide the strange aura around him. Even in plain clothes he looked like something special. He could never pretend to be a commoner. The way he moved his body, the way his skin shone with so much warmth – no, he could definitely never pass as a simple northerner. My clothes couldn’t cover the charisma he was transmitting. His eyes glistened in the afternoon sun as he awaited my answer.

“You look good.” Was all I was able to mutter. As if I would tell him what I really thought.

“That’s what I was hoping for, though it does feel a bit strange to wear this type of fabric. It’s so… rough.” He looked at the sand-colored shirt that I had given him, pulling at the hem of it. “But I like the pants. I’ve never worn anything this tight before, but it feels good. Even though I won’t be able to move so freely in them,”

I cursed under my breath. Even though I had given him my biggest pair of pants, they still looked like they were hugging his legs and ass so tight and they were even exposing his ankles. I sighed. I didn’t like being reminded of my small figure.

“I’m glad you’re satisfied.” I said ironically. “So what now?”

“Now I’ll tell you the plan … If you make me dinner first.”


End file.
